Resurrecting a rose
by Captain Gloom
Summary: "Normally, one has to make a deal with the devil to bring someone back from the dead. I don't have the time or virgins for that, so this is something much worse." – Captain Gloom, 2017 My first attempt at a thriller story. Hope you like.
1. Chapter 1 Reports of a disturbance

"Normally, one has to make a deal with the devil to bring someone back from the dead. I don't have the time or virgins for that, so this is something much worse." – Captain Gloom, 2017

"Log date: 8 23 2. This is Peridot. I am currently on the beach outside of Beach City, walking towards Steven's house. Within the last three hours, there have been several reports of screams and destruction emanating from the site. All attempts to warp to the temple have been met with failure, so I decided to travel on foot to investing-"

"Who are you talking to?" A voice asked from Peridot's finger screen.

"Lapis, please, I'm doing a log!"

"Oh, right." Lapis replied. Peridot heard her laugh a little. She could be really annoying sometimes.

"Lapis refused to join me on this investigation, saying it's 'probably nothing' and 'the Crystal Gems will have it under control'. I beg to differ. As the leader of the Crystal Gems: Beta squad, or 'Crystal Temps' as Connie and Lapis call it, I must react to all threats appropriately."

"Right, well. You'll be the one explaining to the Crystal Gems why you burst through their door in the middle of the night. I am not in the mood for that."

"But I'm the only one here! I'd be the one telling them either way!" Peridot said, realising that yelling may not be the best thing to do when sneaking. She formed her finger screen back into fingers, and crouched down, pressed her back against the cliff face. "It feels good to have my limb enhancers back."

Lapis had retrieved Peridot's limb enhancers a few days ago, as a thank you gift for putting up with her while she recovered from the whole Malachite ordeal. It took Peridot a day to think about if she wanted to use them again, and another day to figure out how to use them. Now she was back at mastery level, and it felt good. She primed her right arm into blaster form, and slowly moved forward. Even in this level of darkness it was easy to spot the little house, at the end of the beach, surrounded by the statue of a massive fusion.

"It has been approximately an hour since the human 'Connie' was deployed to investigate. She hasn't reported in at all during that time. I'm worried about her." Peridot said, fear dripped from her final few word as she looked at the house. It was dark, there were no lights, and the door was broken right off its hinges, now flat on the ground at the bottom of the wooden stairs. Peridot observed the door, tried to figure out what happened. The door seemed to have been hit with some tremendous force, which almost cracked it in two. Before she could climb the stairs, Peridot flinched. There was blood on the bottom step, not much, but still. A human had been hurt here. Peridot climbed the stairs till she reached the top, and froze. There was more blood, trailing into the house. The window next to the door was smashed out, and from the gap in the doorway, Peridot could see a small arm, protruding from the darkness. Connie.

"Lapis, are you still there?" Peridot asked, panic in her voice.

"Yea, I'm still here. What's gotten you so scared?"

"Contact the Maheswarans, tell them to get here as quickly as possible. Connie's injured."

"On it. See what state she's in so I can tell her mother what level of care she needs." There was a change in Lapis's voice. She had sounded calm before, but now she sounded alert, focused, and just a hint of panicked. Peridot moved to Connie's limp body, using her fingers as tools to check her vitals. There was no response from any of them, no matter what test she tried. It seems she'd been dead for at least half an hour. She had cuts and bruises, like she had been thrown around the room a lot before she finally expired.

"Lapis."

"Yea?"

"Connie….. she's gone."

"Oh no... Is there nothing you can do? Humans can't be that hard to restart."

"This isn't a computer, Lapis! I don't know anything about human anatomy. But Connie's mother does. Maybe she can bring her back."

"Yea, she probably can, humans can do that." Peridot could hear it in Lapis's voice. She knew. She knew that Connie was dead and there was nothing to be done about it, they had to keep going on with this investigation to make sure the rest of the Crystal Gems were ok. Peridot looked up from Connie's body, and surveyed the area. Everything was trashed in here, like a massive fight had gone down. Foods and liquids were all over the ground near the kitchen. All the furniture had been reduced to splinters. At the other end of the house, the warp pad was cracked severely. No wonder they couldn't warp to it. The door to the temple was wide open, and that's where it stood. It was only there for a moment, so Peridot didn't get a good enough look, but she knew that it, whatever it was, was tall.

"Lapis, I'm going to move into the temple. I won't be able to communicate with you while I'm there."

"What? No! Wait for me, I'll be there in a few minutes!"

"Lapis, I can't wait. Steven could be in trouble in there. He's done so much for us, I have to go in there and make sure he's not hurt. I won't go in too far, don't worry." Peridot was panicking. She knew it would be best to wait for Lapis, but every second that passed was another second that Steven could have died because she didn't get to him in time.

"Fine. Not too far, ok? I don't want anything bad to happen to you, ok?"

"Ok. Moving out." Peridot ended the transmission, and moved closer. She could see now that there were marks on the door, like clawed hands had pulled the door open. Through it was Amethyst's room, garbage everywhere. Peridot nudged forwards, little by little, trying to be as tactical and stealthy as possible. She failed at this when she stepped on a paint can and fell over into a pile of Amethyst's belongings, making the tower of trash fall, right on top of her. She sighed, and began to get as much of it off her as she could, when a scream made her freeze. It wasn't animalistic, it wasn't one of a corrupted gem, which had been Peridot's theory until this point. It sounded like a gem, or a human. It was a scream of utter sadness and harrowing fear. It was the sound of a Ruby screaming.


	2. Chapter 2 Burning Room

"Did you ever hear the tragedy of Darth Rose the Wise?" – Captain Gloom, trying to use a dead meme to sound cool.

The screams were getting louder, she was getting nearer. Peridot had spent only a few minutes running around Amethyst's room, but it had felt like hours. She was getting to the edge now, where the screams were loudest. It was a hole, of sort, that led to a different part of the temple. It was perfectly circular, which would have been odd if there hadn't been gem shenanigans here for the last few thousand years. The tunnel seems to just keep going, with no end in sight. Peridot stood there for a moment, debating in her head if she should go through it. The screams were most certainly coming from in it, but Lapis said not to go too far in. She stood there for a few moments, until a drop of water tapped her hair. She looked up, and saw Pearl's room. All the semi spheres of water, the waterfall, it was truly magnificent. She looked a little closer, and noticed something around the edges of the fountains. They were dark green, and looked like leaves, or moss. She noticed that the water in the fountains seemed to have turned a bit green as well. Curious. She was about to head back, Lapis would be able to help with Pearl's room, when she heard another voice coming from the tunnel, the voice of a male child. "Ruby, are you ok? Where's sapphire?"

Peridot sprinted down the tunnel, yelling at the top of her lungs. "Steven! Steven where are you?"

She kept running. She ran through rooms and tunnels of massively changing shape and contents. She kept running till she felt the heat begin to rise, and she found herself in the burning room. The moment she entered she knew something horrible had happened here. There were no bubbled gems anymore. There was only little flecks of gems all over the ground, like shattered glass. Ruby was curled up in a ball in one edge of the room with Steven standing over her. Peridot called out to him. "Steven!"

Steven turned around, and Peridot saw it. His shirt had blood, a lot of blood, on it, around the navel area. He seemed quite pale, like he might faint soon. "Peridot? What are you doing here?"

"I heard reports of loud sounds and disturbances coming from the temple. What happened?"

Steven hesitated, the way a guilty child would when they were in trouble, but there was more to it, like he couldn't bear to think of what had happened. Peridot got closer and dropped to one knee, putting her fingers on his shoulder. "Steven, please tell me. I won't get mad, I promise. Whatever happened, I'll help you fix it."

The small boy seemed comforted, and was about to open his mouth when his legs gave out. Peridot grabbed him and helped slow his fall, so he landed safely. She hugged him, held him in her arms. He was much more pale now, and there was much more blood now. He sighed, and began to tell the tale of what happened.

"It was over an hour ago. I was lying in bed. I'd been thinking of Rose for a long time recently, and it just got to me. I felt so bad about being the reason she's gone, the reason Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl don't have her anymore. I couldn't take it anymore. I thought and thought of a way to bring her back, and found something I thought might work."

Steven lifted his shirt, revealing the large hole where his navel once was. It was like his gem had been crudely cut out, and the damage was getting worse. Peridot panicked. Steven was really hurt, and she couldn't do anything to help him. She was helpless. "What about your healing powers?"

"I tried that, it didn't work. It seems I can't heal myself." He replied. He was getting weaker by the minute. "Peridot, find Pearl and Amethyst, their trying to keep her at bay. She's not herself, she doesn't know what she's doing. Please…"

Peridot was trying not to cry. She was watching Steven die in her arms. She turned to Ruby. "Ruby, please. Get Steven to the front of the house. Mrs Maheswaran will be there soon, she can help him."

"Peridot, don't. Ruby's been through a lot recently, don't ask her to do anything else." Steven said. It looked like he was about to say more when Ruby got up. Peridot could see in her hand was a broken blue gem. It was is so many pieces it was hard to tell it used to be Sapphire. Ruby had more tears in her eyes than Peridot thought was possible. "No, Steven. I need to get you out of here. I can cry when everyone else is safe. Peridot, keep moving through the tunnels, you'll find a route to Pearl's room. That's where they're trying to push her back to while we think of some way to contain her."

"Wait. Rose was your leader. Why is she attacking you all?" Peridot asked.

Ruby looked to Steven, who was looked sadder than he had before. "When I brought her back, it wasn't right. She came back, but not fully who she was. She's not fully corrupted, but she is enough to not know who she is, or remember any of us. We tried to poof her in the house, but we couldn't. She killed Connie. We had to retreat into Amethyst's room, and she slipped here without us knowing…"

Steven Looked at all the bits of gems around him, tears flowing from his eyes. "She ate them…"

Peridot felt a sinking feeling as those words meaning hit her. Rose ate all the corrupted gems in the burning room. " _How_?"

"I don't know. Garnet got here before us, but she was too late. Then they fought, and Sapphire…." Steven looked to Ruby, who was staring at the lava in the centre of the room.

"Ruby, I'm going to find Pearl and Amethyst, please, get Steven out of the temple." Ruby nodded, and put Steven over her shoulder, which was odd to look at, as both were the same size. She ran out the way Peridot had come from, and Peridot went out one of the other ways. She opted to use her helicopter function to move faster, as the pathway was much bigger than the one she had been using before. As she moved, she logged everything that she had learnt, and she wept for her friends.


	3. Chapter 3 Fountain Finale

"Why are you killing my favourite characters?" – everyone who reads my stories, 2017

The tunnel to Pearl's room was quite similar to the one from Amethyst's room, except the crystals the protruded from the walls, ceiling, and floor were a light blueish colour, and more rounded. Peridot was getting sick of being underground. It was dark, cramped, and quite unnerving. In the distance, she saw the tunnel open out, and could see one of the floating fountains further out there. She picked up the pace, sprinted through, right off the edge. She sighed as she switched her right arm into helicopter formation, and rose back up. She hoped no one had seen her just run off a cliff. As she rose she began to hear the fight. She heard clashing, the sound of a whip, and grunts and shouts. She was beginning to rise faster, using her other hand in helicopter formation as well. This was a more dangerous method, but Peridot reasoned that this was an emergency that warranted it. She rose quicker, but still not quick enough.

As her eyes lifted high enough to see the fight, she saw it. It was tall, a bit taller than Jasper was. It was large, larger than Garnet. It's pink ringlet hair had patches of red in it. Blood. Its skin was pale, its eyes were blood shot, strangely. Its fingers were long and ended in sharp blade like nails. Its white dress, ripped, and soaked in blood. On its navel, was a gemstone. You'd be forgiven for thinking it was red, but it was pink. Its body was bloated, like a dead body that spent too much time at the bottom of a river. Its mouth, was like something out of a human horror story. It was massive, almost filling its entire face, it was filled with teeth, not sharp teeth, but big flat molars. Rose Quartz, the leader of the Crystal Gems, was a monster.

Pearl and Amethyst were standing at one edge of the fountain in the centre of the room, Rose was at the other side, staring at them. Peridot was floating just a bit behind Rose. She hadn't noticed her yet, or at least didn't show it. Peridot put her right arm into blaster form and flew forward, charging up a shot. At the last second Rose turned, grabbed Peridot's waist, and threw her at Pearl and Amethyst, who both ducked out the way to avoid being hit but their tumbling green Dorito friend. Peridot fell of the side, but held on by one finger. She slowly heaved, and pulled herself up. She sat there for a moment, legs dangling off the edge, and watched the two more experienced fighters take on their former mentor and close friend. Pearl's eyes were filled with tears. She made a sad whining sound every time she made an attack, which always led to it being blocked or dodged. Amethyst had tears in her eyes, but wasn't a waterfall like Pearl. Peridot got to her feet, and rushed in to help, but froze, as Amethyst fell for a feint, and with one fluid motion, was in Rose's huge mouth, freaking out. Pearl screamed out as Amethyst tried her hardest to fight back against the tremendous forces trying to flatten her. Rose battered off Pearl's attempts to get to Amethyst, and only just dodged Peridot's first blast. The second blast singed her hair, a small green flame began to burn on the tip of a ringlet. Rose turned, and looked Peridot in the eye, as she crunched down, and crushed Amethyst, hologram, gem, and all.

There was a moment where the world seemed to disappear for Peridot. Amethyst was dead. She just stood there, the sounds of the fight were but mere murmurs now. Amethyst was dead. She could see Rose running for her, but she couldn't move. Amethyst was dead. She felt she crash into her, trying to get her into her mouth. Amethyst was dead. She could see little flecks of purple stuck in her teeth. Amethyst was dead. She felt tears begin to roll down her face, and her eyes began to hurt. Amethyst, her friend, the person who showed her that she had powers she couldn't have dreamed of, was dead. Peridot had given up. She didn't care that she was being stuffed in Rose's mouth, that Pearl was desperately calling out to her. She wanted this pain to end. Then her tears began to fall even harder now, except, they were falling up.

Peridot could feel it, stuck in Rose's mouth, she could feel Rose stop and look up. She could see above them, at the very top of the room, a blue gem, with glorious wings of water was floating, her arms wide, clenched in fists, her eyes filled with rage. She yelled. "GET AWAY FROM MY PERIDOT!"

Peridot felt a wall of water slam into Rose from behind, making her spit the little green gem out. Peridot snapped back to her senses, and got to her feet, trying to get back into the fight. There wasn't that much of a fight happening anymore, as Rose was floating in a rather large ball of water, one and a half meters (5 feet) from the base of the fountain. She was silently screaming, franticly looking at Peridot, Lapis, and Pearl. Peridot could see Lapis above, looking like she was trying to crush an imaginary ball in-between her hands. Peridot sat down, trying to get her thoughts straight. It was during this time that she realised the green bush-like things surrounding the other fountains were moving. They were bunching up at the closest edges to the main fountain. Rose made another silent scream, and the bushes revealed their hidden weapons.

Long, thorn covered vines snapped out, and tried to grab at Lapis, at Peridot, and at the water that entombed Rose. The ones that went for the tomb slashed, and cut, but the mindless plants couldn't figure out why it stayed together. The ones that went for Lapis almost made it to her, but spikes of water shot out of the main fountain, cutting the vines, just before they could reach her. The vines that went after Peridot, however, were luckier. They wrapped around her faster than she could say 'Clod'. They raised her into the air, spinning her, flipping her, trying to keep her disoriented. She rose higher and higher, her arms pinned by her sides, she couldn't concentrate enough to form a plan. She was almost at the height of Lapis when the vines began to squeeze. The last thing Peridot saw before she poofed was Lapis's look of concern, her arm raised out to grab her, and the pillar of water racing to intercept the vine.

Peridot opened her eyes. She was in Steven's house, and it was almost morning. She looked around. Pearl was sitting on the warp pad, facing the temple door. Ruby was sitting on the couch adjacent to the doorframe, staring out the window. Mr and Mrs Maheswaran were kneeling over two bodies covered in white sheets. Lapis was standing over Peridot, offering her a hand. Peridot took the hand, and Lapis helped her to her now enhancer-less feet.

"Are you ok?" Lapis asked. She seemed worried for Peridot.

"I'm fine. What happened?"

"We beat her, barely. The vines managed to knock me out of the fight, but Pearl got in and…" She looked to Pearl, who Peridot could now see was shivering, and quietly sobbing. Peridot was going to ask what happened to Steven, but she already knew, and having it being re-confirmed would just be too much for her. She stood there, looking at Connie's parents. After a few more moments, Peridot walked over and sat by Ruby, one of the two last original Crystal Gems.

"We've lost so many people today." Peridot said, breaking the silence.

"Yea, we have." Ruby replied without looking away from the ocean.

"We lost Steven, Connie, Sapphire, and even Garnet. They're all dead." The words haunted Peridot before she had even spoken them. More than half of her closest friends were dead.

"No." Said Ruby "Garnet's not dead."

Peridot looked out at the ocean, and thought about Ruby's words. Who knew what the future would hold, or if there even was a future for the Crystal Gems anymore.

(Greetings everyone!

Thank you all so much for reading my story! I had a lot of fun making it. If you liked this, read some of my other stories, they're all pretty similar to this. I have big plans for the future, so keep an eye on my profile.

Thank you all again, really.)


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